BLOOM Stop!

(He hits his ashplant high with both hands and smashes the chandelier. Time's livid final flame leaps and, in the following darkness, ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry.) THE GASJET Pwfungg! BLOOM Stop! LYNCH (Rushes forward and seizes Stephen's hand.) Here! Hold on! Don't run amok! BELLA Police! (Stephen, abandoning his ashplant, his head and arms thrown back stark, beats the ground and flees from the room past the whores at the door.) BELLA (Screams.) After him! (The two whores rush to the halldoors. Lynch and Kitty and Zoe stampede from the room. They talk excitedly. Bloom follows, returns.) THE WHORES (Jammed in the doorway, pointing.) Down there. ZOE (Pointing.) There. There's something up. BELLA Who pays for the lamp? (She seizes Bloom's coattail.) There. You were with him. The lamp's broken. BLOOM (Rushes to the hall, rushes back.) What lamp, woman? A WHORE He tore his coat. BELLA (Her eyes hard with anger and cupidity, points.) Who's to pay for that? Ten Shillings. You're a witness. BLOOM (Snatches up Stephen's ashplant.) Me? Ten shillings? Haven't you lifted enough off him? Didn't he... BELLA (Loudly.) Here, none of your tall talk. This isn't a brothel. A ten shilling house. BLOOM (His hand under the lamp, pulls the chain. Pulling, the gasjet lights up a crushed mauve purple shade. He raises the ashplant.) Only the chimney's broken. Here is all he... BELLA (Shrinks back and screams.) Jesus! Don't! BLOOM (Warding off a blow.) To show you how he hit the paper. There's not a sixpenceworth of damage done. Ten shillings! FLORRY (With a glass of water enters.) Where is he? BELLA Do you want me to call the police? BLOOM O, I know. Bulldog on the premises. But he's a Trinity student. Patrons of your establishment. Gentlemen that pay the rent. (He makes a masonic sign.) Know what I mean? Nephew of the vice-chancellor. You don't want a scandal. BELLA (Angrily.) Trinity! Coming down here ragging after the boat races and paying nothing. Are you my commander here? Where is he? I'll charge him. Disgrace him, I will. (She shouts.) Zoe! Zoe!